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Japanese premier to ask Pakistan, India for nuclear disarmament,peace |
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August 19, 2000
ISLAMABAD (AP) - The thorny issues of nuclear disarmament and tension between Pakistan and India will be high Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiri Mori's agenda during his tour of South Asia, Japan's ambassador to Pakistan said. Mori's week-long tour starts Sunday in Bangladesh. He will spend the day in Pakistan, where he will meet with military ruler Gen. Pervez Musharraf and other Pakistani leaders, Ambassador Sadaaki Numata, said late Thursday. He then visits India and Nepal. Mori will ask rivals India and Pakistan to resume talks for regional peace and sign the global nuclear test ban treaty, he said. "Japan have been consistently urging both India and Pakistan for nuclear disarmament," Numata told The Associated Press. Pakistan and India, which have fought three wars since their independence from Britain in 1947, exploded underground nuclear devices in 1998. World powers are trying to get the two nations to renounce their nuclear weapons, but both countries - at loggerheads over Kashmir - have refused, triggering concerns of another full-fledged conflict between them. Kashmir is divided between Pakistan and India, which both claim the Himalayan region in its entirety. India accuses Pakistan of fomenting a decade-long armed insurgency and refuses to hold talks with Islamabad until Pakistan stops supporting militants. Pakistan denies the charge, and calls the insurgency an indigenous movement. Like other world powers, Japan - which lost 210,000 lives in the wartime bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki - suspended all loans and grants after the nuclear tests. Until 1998, Japan provided Pakistan with dlrs 491 million in loans and grants and was its largest trading partner with nearly dlrs 1 billion in annual trade between them. Sanctions against Pakistan and India would be lifted if the two countries sign the test ban treaty, Numata said. "Japanese people want to help Pakistan. But it can't be a one-way traffic," Numata said. "Pakistan has to give a positive response to international campaign for nuclear disarmament." Pakistan says it needs a national consensus before signing the treaty. |